Collaborating with Corgenix on the program will be members of the Viral Hemorrhagic Fever Consortium (VHFC), a collaboration of academic and industry members headed by Tulane University and partially funded with support from the NIH.
The NIH phase II, R44 grant is a continuation of a previous two-year grant to develop special proteins for use in testing. It is the fifth major grant or contract awarded to Corgenix and its VHFC collaborative partners to combat dangerous viral hemorrhagic fevers, including Ebola, Lassa and Marburg viruses.
Development of the Ebola test would enable rapid response to public health and bioterrorism threats posed by the deadly virus.
The grant enables researchers to further develop efforts for a point-of-care test kit that can be used in any clinical or field lab to determine in a matter of minutes if a patient is infected with Ebola. Corgenix and the VHFC have already developed and CE marked the ReLASV rapid test for the Lassa fever virus.
Current testing for the Ebola virus requires special biohazard handling and sending test samples long distances to special labs – a process that takes several days. This results in a critical loss of time to diagnose, treat and help prevent the spread of the virus.
